"This is the skin of a killer."

[mollyringle]

And it can be yours, too, with Sephora SuperShimmer Powder, available now, for the holidays!

Which is to say, I went out with many a relative and saw Twilight yesterday. I liked it. I thought it was fun. We did burst into laughter at times where they probably didn't intend the audience to do that--though I'm hoping they did. (Such as Robert Pattinson's extremely weird, yet very adolescent-male, moments of being socially awkward to the point of rudeness.)

Random notes, none of which spoil anything:

1. The pasty vampire makeup, with the red lips, looked a little silly in some shots. My sister Kate put it best: "Maybe he's immortal. Maybe it's Maybelline."

2. The Pacific Northwest looked beautiful. As it always does, thank you very much. Complete with chainsaw-carved bears! That is a very authentic touch, we must admit.

3. But, unless Charlie keeps the house at 75 degrees, I doubt Bella would be sleeping in a little tank top in the cold rainy months. Our shoulders freeze here if we try that.

4. Jasper's alarmed facial expression cracked me up. Looked a lot like Johnny Depp as either Edward Scissorhands or Ichabod Crane.

5. Could the subtext under the vampirism plot be any more clearly about the dangerous allure of teen sex? Approximate conversations from the film:
He: I can't be near you. If I start, I won't be able to stop.
She: I'm not afraid.
He: You should be. I'm not that strong.
She: (nuzzling up close) Yes you are. I trust you.
He: (labored breathing) You really shouldn't.

6. I did like the leads for the most part, especially Billy Burke (Charlie) and, yes, Robert Pattinson. I appreciate that he did the self-loathing, rather creepy interpretation of Edward, rather than Too Suave And Romantic To Endure, as it's possible to interpret him in the books. Flaws are endearing.

7. The Cullen house looked nothing like its book description. But it did look like a typical expensive house in the Northwest, so maybe that's better anyway.

Comments

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

Sounds more like Maybelline. That pasty face does nothing for me. As bad as the books are, I'm sure the movie does the books a service. I'm sure Robert Pattinson hammed it up. Lets hope Bella was not as annoying as the book.

Hey this is the movies. They all sleep in little tank tops....even the vampires.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

So far I found Bella less annoying than in the books, but then, she didn't truly annoy me till the second book, so we'll see...

[girlspell.livejournal.com]

Had to answer with an icon for you. Found this yesterday on who_gets_credit Someone put it up to find out who made up. Could not resist considering your earlier statement.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hah! Too funny. Guess we weren't the only ones thinking along those lines. Thanks for showing that to me. :D

[dirae.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen the movie nor read the books. Nonetheless, as patron saint to tetchy morose teenage boys, I love this description: "extremely weird, yet very adolescent-male, moments of being socially awkward to the point of rudeness." Oh, how I try to teach my many foster sons NOT to be this person, yet they refuse to listen. I introduced one of them to a charming young lady who happened to be harbouring a tremendous crush and this kid froze up to the point that he came across as an aloof a-hole. Needless to say, this broke the spell of the crush. :)

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Heheh. Yep--when watching the film, I found myself thinking that I had exchanges like those in high school, with the guy being, by turns, inquisitive, abrupt, defensive, and evasive. At least in the film it's because he's a vampire and thus has all kinds of secrets and problems. Not sure what the excuse is for normal teen guys. :)

[naill-renfro.livejournal.com]

That would be terror. Pure, stark, unreasoning terror.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

And here boys are supposed to be the brave ones... :)

[gavinworld.livejournal.com]

Every time I hear the name "Billy Burke," I think of "Billie Burke," a.k.a., Glinda the Good Witch, who is of course another person entirely.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hah, I knew the name sounded familiar. That's why. You'd think he'd have chosen a different screen name...

[modmerseygirl.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you enjoyed the movie! :-) I saw it again today. I love it so much!

I really want to visit Forks!

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I did really like the semi-grainy, rainy look they gave the film. Suited the scenery nicely. Though I think they filmed mainly around Portland, not actually Forks... ?

[notemily.livejournal.com]

oh man, Jasper was the funniest thing in the movie. I'd see it again just for him.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

That kid's got a future, I'm thinking. :)

[naill-renfro.livejournal.com]

Alas, the Twilight series will never be the Next Big Thing, at least not on the Harry Potter scale, because it has zero cross-gender appeal; from my daughter's eleven-year-old friends to my early-twenties students, it's strictly a girl thing. Or maybe not so alas, demonstrating my point: It's a girl thing. What kind of vampire story doesn't have stakings, beheadings, or bloodsucking? More violence, please! Although I understand (from my daughter, who went to see it with her friends) that they added some Bad-Vampire bloodsucking that wasn't in the book.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

True, it's very much a teen-girl thing. Though how come girls can take on LOTR, which is supposed to be a guy thing, while guys won't touch "girl things"? We have cooties or something??

Anyway, true enough, there's much less drama than in many a vampire universe, even though I'm pretty sure there is at least a little bloodsucking in the books. (I've only read the first two so far.) Still, I deeply hope the Twilight fans eventually get their hands on Buffy, which has a lovely pan-gender-appealing mix of romance, comedy, angst, and violent death. :) (And better writing.)

[naill-renfro.livejournal.com]

I think LOTR fandom *used* to be mostly (but never entirely) a guy thing, before the movies came out... But there are all-male fandoms that most girls won't have anything to do with. Spiderman.

Once Star Wars fandom wasn't all-male, but the unspeakable prequel trilogy pretty much ended that... Better not go down that road. Too much bitterness.

HP fandom is gender-neutral, I think. I gave a talk on HP to a class of fifth-graders the other day -- it was wonderful to see how fully all of them had internalized the stories, and to hear how much they had to say; there were some pretty deep thoughts there.

Buffy, Star Trek... These are equal-opportunity fandoms too, but aren't all the BNFs female? HP too, for that matter. Typical -- boys never want to do any of the work.

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Hm, I don't know, I could do a post and easily rout out a handful of girls (including myself) who have seen all the Spiderman movies and liked them. (OK, well, except the latest. No one liked that.) Similar for old Star Wars. There are always *more* males in those fandoms, of course, but it isn't hard to find females. We're definitely less afraid of the cooties. (Find me some guy who admits to liking My Little Pony or Jem and the Holograms in his youth.)

Yeah, I noticed years ago that the fanfic writers are almost always female. I'm not sure why this is, but I bet others have written dissertations on it. Maybe after breakfast I'll have some deeper thoughts.

[naill-renfro.livejournal.com]

Spiderman movies, OK, but how about the comics?

Nope, didn't like My Little Pony. Not even a little bit. Not even as an adult, when my daughters went through the MLP phase.

I did like the Powerpuff Girls, though. Draw what conclusions you will.

Dissertations indeed, and conferences -- and somehow I'm usually the only guy there.

/"I don't know, you are more in touch with your feminine side than most guys." -- Toph Bei Fong

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

I think guys do commonly like the Powerpuff Girls. Probably because they're superheroes, and superheroes are always welcome in Guy World.

But you may be right about comic books being much more a non-girl thing. I can't quite get into them, even the Buffy ones.

[celticmommy.livejournal.com]

I agree with all. I can't say I was all that impressed with the "sparkle effect" ... looked like the poor guy fell in a massive tub of cheap glitter. *sigh*

But much swooning and stuff was inspired... one of my favorite comments made by us when we saw it was "Oooh a doctor ... too bad he's not a gynecologist!" This coming from one of my coworkers, the oldest in the group, who should be a good influence on all of us young whippersnappers, instead of being so darn bad all the time. LOL

Yeah, what happened to her tatty sweats and t shirt for that scene? *sigh*

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

The glitter didn't even look very glittery on the screen where we saw it. He just looked kind of shiny and blurry.

Heheh...Carlisle wasn't bad looking either. Kind of like Christian Bale gone blond.

[celticmommy.livejournal.com]

I dunno, something about vamps is sexy ... except for old Nosferatu ... nothing sexy about that guy. *shudder*